Sunday, August 30, 2009

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

It get's better:

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

Better and better:

Two letters dated five months apart show that Straw initially intended to exclude Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, under which British and Libyan prisoners could serve out their sentences in their home country.

In a letter dated July 26, 2007, Straw said he favoured an option to leave out Megrahi by stipulating that any prisoners convicted before a specified date would not be considered for transfer.

More nauseating details follow which I won't bother to copy and paste.

If they had the death penalty and used it then this wouldn't be a problem.

Oh, you just thought things were as bad as they could get. Check this out.

There is a new version of a bill out to give the White House the power to shut off private access to the internet.

From the article:

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

I've got a better idea. How about we require all congressmen to have a babysitter that is a certified "legislative professional" to keep them from trying to spread their toxic stupidity throughout the nation.

The only good thing about this monstrous obomination is that the draft, at 55 pages, is considerably shorter than the socialized medicine bill. When someone plans to screw me over I prefer that they get right to the point and not dance around the fact that they are fixing to screw me.

I guess these days we have to expect the government to always be on the lookout for new ways to expand it's power.

Bend over - they're from the federal government and they're here to help.

I understand that people in congress and the government accounting office have lost their minds. I've got that. What I want to know is this: Has everyone else in the nation lost their minds, too!?

Where in the United States Constitution is congress authorized to take money from some people and give it to others so they can "retire"? I haven't seen that part.

I don't recall the part about me being able to "retire" while congress requires someone else to provide me a particular standard of living. I must have missed that.

YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO AN EASY RETIREMENT!!!

The duty of the government is not to take from others so you can live out your golden years. The duty of government is to keep others from taking from you.

It's a fairly easy concept.

From the article:

“If no action is taken, a considerable number of Americans face the prospect of a reduced standard of living in retirement."

Boo Hoo. That is life. A much larger number of Americans face the guarantee of a reduced standard of living in retirement if congress goes ahead with this unconstitutional insanity. Maybe this is part of the "end of life" councelling that is part of the socialized medicine plan. A sort of "we can't just come out and kill you but we can make you wish you were dead" clause.

You have the right to plan for retirement or not. If you don't plan for retirement then you have to live with your choice. Even if you plan for retirement you may still lose everything. That is one of the risks of life. Suck it up and deal with it. The government is not you nanny whose shoulder you are supposed to go crying to when things don't turn out the way you want them to.

This plan makes socialized medicine look like a good idea.

Here is a scary thing:

The GAO also examined four “key” domestic proposals to reform the U.S. private pension system – including a government-sponsored, mandatory system called the Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRA) plan.

The old mandatory system was a huge steaming crock so what are they looking at? A new steaming crock that is even bigger.

The bizzare things the government has been doing seem designed to make the stock market and the economy as a whole crash. Maybe this is the "crisis" that the government will use to push this new attack on 401k plans.

Who would run this plan? I'm glad you asked. Here is your answer:

Under this plan, the federal government (Social Security Administration) would establish and administer a system of retirement savings accounts – guaranteeing a specified rate of return on those accounts.

Are we really so stupid as to let the SSA take more of our money for another goofy scheme like this?

I'm sure that congress and the LWM will assure us that the money will be safe in individual accounts for each of us and we don't have to worry about losing our money. If you believe that I've got some ocean front property I'll sell you for a really good price.

Even if the money was "safe" in some account with your name on it doesn't that seem like the government would gain a lot of leverage over your life? I mean, it would be terrible if your account was locked or lost wouldn't it? If this plan passes then expect lots of conditions to be added for getting your money out. Expect that those in government will use those conditions to encourage behaviour that they want and discourage behaviour they don't want.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

However, Senate Bill 328, which passed in the last Texas legislative session, means that anyone involved in a crash, whether they're suspected of drunk driving or not and where there's bodily injury, severe or not, or has a child in their car, or previous D.W.I. convictions, will have blood drawn automatically within a matter of minutes.

I couldn't find the part about having a child in the car. The kids are playing in the room so I may just be missing it. However, since anyone with a minor bruise or cut will frequently go to the hospital or doctor just to make sure there isn't something serious you can bet that most of the time if the police show up at an accident then all drivers will be giving up their DNA.

The "shake-and-bake" approach has become popular because it requires a relatively small number of pills of the decongestant pseudoephedrine — an amount easily obtained under even the toughest anti-meth laws that have been adopted across the nation to restrict large purchases of some cold medication.

Maybe we could start requiring a DNA sample and background check for the purchase of each individual cold pill. What am I saying!!? I don't want to give congress or any state legislature any ideas.

With success like this, why would anyone be against socialized medicine?

Figures released by the White House budget office foresee a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010-2019, $2 trillion more than the administration estimated in May. Moreover, the figures show the public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy.

A total of 33 Fox advertisers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on Beck's show, according to the companies and ColorofChange.org, a group that promotes political action among blacks and launched a campaign to get advertisers to abandon him.

I went to the colorofchange.org site and couldn't find a complete list of the 33 companies and I couldn't find a list using bing. Is the number exaggerated? Probably.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Now that is a well set up M336. XS Scout Mount, Leupold QRW rings, Leupold 2.5x IER Scout Scope, XS Ghost Rings. It needs a good sling and a butt cuff. The QRW rings are medium height and need to be replaced with extra low ones but sometimes you put on whatever you have at the moment and replace them with the right stuff later. When the rings are changed they need to be reversed so the release levers are on the right side so when you sling it muzzle down on the left side the levers don't catch on your clothes or dig into your side.A couple of action shots.Here is the inevitable "blow something up" video.

Friday, August 21, 2009

The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams—the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton's reform plan.

Is he kidding!?

Does he think he's fooling people? Oh no, there is a conspiracy out there trying to keep the government from "fixing" health care. LOL.

People want to kill the socialized medicine bill because it is unconstitutional, stupid, wasteful, and defeating it will help slow the spread of government.

From the horse's mouth:

"I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook," the president said.

He really doesn't seem to understand that the people of this nation DO NOT WANT socialized medicine. There is no "conspiracy" in this with shadowy figures running around giving secret handshakes.

Make no mistake though that republican's would like to take back control of congress. That is standard fare in any situation where people disagree. That's politics.

A little more:

Appearing on the Michael Smerconish radio show, Mr. Obama said he would "love to have more Republicans engaged and involved in this process," but he vowed to win the battle, with or without support from the minority party in Congress.

Obviously the President doesn't care what the peasants in fly-over country want. If we would all just shut up he could do things to us that need to be done.

Note to the President: The reason there is a battle is because the majority of the country does not agree with you. If you were a man you would accept that and try to convince people with facts instead of resorting to name calling like a child or a Clinton.

The last bit from the article:

"I guarantee you, Joe, we are going to get health care reform done," he said to one caller. "I know there are a lot of people out there who've been handwringing, and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process, but having a big bill like this is always messy."

In other words: "You people are going to get it good and hard, whether you want it or not."

Is this President really so dumb that he thinks there is a small conspiracy out there turning his subjects against him? Or does he think this is a subtle way to belittle and embarrass the unwashed masses and get them to go along with this nonsense?

Maybe there is another explanation. Maybe we need to have drug tests for the President.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

He lives in the city and is going to have a new fence built in a new location and is concerned about the rules and regulations. He has been calling people and passed back and forth. The first place he called gave him another number to call, so he calls the second number and they gave him the first number he called. Typical government screwups.

Some people will go through all that and STILL want the government to take over healthcare.

It's the famous liberal two-step: First screw something up, then claim that it's screwed up because there's not enough government oversight (it's the free market run wild!), and then step in and really screw it up in the name of "reform."

Sounds a lot like my take on the subject.

The federal government creates a "crisis" so it can step in and "solve" the problem by expanding itself.

In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation.

Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sent a letter warning health insurers that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is "examining executive compensation and other business practices of the health industry."

As if anyone in the health care industry could be even remotely as corrupt and illegal as congress in regards to just social security. The thought of congressmen "examining executive compensation and other business practices" of ANY industry is so bizarre and off the wall that it sounds like something from a Stephen Wright skit.

Note to Waxman and Stupak: People in glass houses should not throw stones.

I would trust the executives in industry before I would trust congress.

From the article:

Waxman, chairman of the committee, and Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee did not inform their Republican counterparts of their plans.

No kidding. With a plan that stupid you are well advised to keep it under wraps for as long as possible.

More:

Health insurers have until Sept. 4 to provide Congress a detailed list of every employee who made over a $1 million dollars a year between 2003 and 2008. Democrats also want documents about conferences and any events held off company property as well as the types of transportation, lodging, food, entertainment and even gifts exchanged.

No surprise here. I expect this from the most transparently corrupt administration in recent memory.

From the article:

Coalitions of interest groups running at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads hired GMMB, which worked for Obama's 2008 campaign and whose partners include a top Obama campaign strategist. They also hired AKPD Message and Media, which was founded by David Axelrod, a top adviser to Obama's campaign and now to the White House. AKPD did work for Obama's campaign, and Axelrod's son Michael and Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe work there.

The firms were hired by Americans for Stable Quality Care and its predecessor, Healthy Economy Now. Each was formed by a coalition of interests with big stakes in health care policy, including the drug maker lobby PhRMA, the American Medical Association, the Service Employees International Union and Families USA, which calls itself "The Voice for Health Care Consumers."

There's that nasty SEIU again.

Maybe this will help to wake up more people to this threat. Somehow I doubt it.

That socialist program was started back when the average lifespan in this nation was short enough that few people reached "retirement age" and few lived very long past it. That lead to one problem with the system which is that the age for benefits should have been indexed to the average lifespan in the nation. These days people expect to live 10+ years beyond the "retirement age" and many live 20+ years. That will become more important very soon.

Another big problem is that the money isn't sitting in a savings account somewhere. The money doesn't exist until it is printed out of thin air.

All this is really just a symptom of the real problem with social security. The real problem is that it is run by the federal government and is not voluntary.

Can anyone with a brain look at this mess and still want the government to try and "reform" health care?

I've been hearing on the radio about auto dealers not getting their wealth transfer checks from the socialized auto sales program. Not to worry because the federal government is going to hire some hundreds of people to help process the forms. Lovely. All we need is more federal government employees. I wonder which union they will be in?

I don't know who wasn't expecting this. I'm surprised that confidence has remained as high as it has.

Here is the article in a sentence:

Consumers are less optimistic about their own personal finances than at any time in the past 60 years, according to an index of consumer sentiment released Friday.

In other words a lot of people have realized what a socialist loser we have elected as President and as leaders in congress and these newly awakened people are suddenly worried about their own rice bowl. I guess before the election these people were more worried about what everyone else had and who they could elect to take the most out of others' bowls and give to them.

Using government to steal cuts both ways. In fact, government is a sword that cuts EVERY direction. Nobody gets out of that kind of transaction without bleeding.

Here is my favorite sentence from the article:

The good news is that job cuts may soon diminish.

What idiot came up with that line? " . . . job cuts may soon diminish."!? We may all sprout wings and fly to the moon. Job cuts may diminish when everyone has lost their job. I LOL'd at that.

Monday, August 17, 2009

I haven't had the kids out target shooting in a while. It's been hot and we've all had a lot of things to do. I've got to get them out and in the groove so to speak. Some .22 LRs to start with so I don't break the bank, then check zero on the big guns.

This was the oldest practicing last year. You can just see the target below the cloud of dust from the impact. That is 100 yards.That will do.I asked the two oldest boys if they were going hunting this year and both said "I don't know" which usually means yes at the last minute.

#3 boy may get to go for the first time this year. He recently turned 6 and I think he needs the opportunity to get his hands dirty. Due to the way the birthdays fall the oldest took his first deer about a week before he turned 7 and #2 took his first a few months after he turned 7.

Anyone who can consistently hit a 6" circle at 50 yards and sit still and quiet in a blind in freezing weather for 3+ hours is mature enough to go hunting.

When the oldest was 8 I dropped him off at a blind at O'dark-thirty in the morning, parked the truck 1/2 mile away and walked back. I was probably gone 30 minutes and he thought it was fine. I did the same thing with #2 when he was 7. My kids are not the kind to freak out at the sound of a coyote or the sight of a snake. Last year #2 sat out with me in 14F weather for 3 hours without complaining. There are lots of "grownups" that couldn't or wouldn't do that.

I've got to get to the farm with my dad soon and cut limbs to open up some more shooting lanes, clean up or rebuild blinds as needed and check for sign. It's supposed to cool off out there in the next week or two so I'll see what happens.

I usually wear a 10 or 10.5 EE. I've tried the ~$20 kind from Walmart and they hurt my feet so bad I can hardly stand them for 5 minutes.

I've shopped around and can't find any mud boots that are in any kind of wide size. I've searched both Cabela's and Bass Pro, as well as Tractor Supply and Gebo's. Next stops are Academy and Gander Mountain. I'm willing to pay more for fancy camo "hunting" boots if I can find some that are comfortable.

So the President and his cronies are going to drop "public option" as a method to drive private health insurance companies out of business. That's a good thing. However, any "reforms" that they come up with will have that same goal of driving private health insurance companies out of business. When all the insurance companies have been forced into bankruptcy then you can bet that the federal government will be happy to step in and "solve" the "crisis" for us.

Don't take your eye off that ball just yet. This game is far from over.

The disruptions at town hall meetings are part of a strategy, Durbin told reporters.

"They have explicit instructions about how to show up at a town meeting and blow it up, take it over," Durbin said.

I think that is a product of hallucinogenic drugs and possibly a very high fever. I wonder if Durban has Swine Flu? Really, I'd like to see one tiny bit of evidence of that. If that is actually true then they might have gotten their protest plans from left-wing loonies.

More nonsense:

"This is too important a topic to leave it to those who only want to show up to shout and shove."

Shouting is the only possible way to make a thick-headed numbskull like durban hear you. The only people I've seen shoving at these events have been members of the SEIU. Hint to Durban: the SEIU is a hard-left union group that supports socialized medicine. Maybe Dick should check out the news and see the videos of he minions assaulting people.

More from the Dick:

"The people who are showing up at these town meetings are not looking for dialogue."

No, it is people like Durban that want to avoid a dialog. He doesn't want to discuss anything. He wants to tell people how it's going to be. The protesters at the town hall meetings are tired of that attitude.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Also known as tie wraps. These things come in many sizes and all are useful but I don't hear people praise them very often. The most common thing I hear them recommended for is as a kind of makeshift handcuff. They would work for that but they have many other uses.

I have repaired several vehicles with them. On many modern cars there is a rubber piece under the front bumper that is designed to direct air up onto the radiator. I've had two cars that developed tears in this rubber piece and I was able to repair both with a few tie wraps. the repairs survived for years. Bailing wire might have worked but I think the smaller diameter of the wire would have torn through the rubber and eventually failed.

I repaired the trim around the wheel well on another vehicle with tie wraps. Some jerk ran into the car in a parking lot and of course didn't bother to leave a name or insurance info. The impact damaged a big piece of trim that went around the wheel well and ended at the rear bumper. The piece was torn loose from the car and would flap in the wind when the car was driven. A couple of tie wraps secured that trim piece about 4 years ago and it hasn't move since.

Here is one example of cable ties. Go buy some and put them in your miscellaneous bin. You'll be surprised how many things you can fix with them.

I finally got tired of waiting for free roof materials to show up on freecycle or craigslist so we spent the money on corrugated roof metal. We got some that was 2'x16'. The first question is how do you cut it? I used a circular saw with a fine toothed plywood blade turned backwards. As always when working with power tools be sure to use ear and eye protection and don't forget your heavy work gloves as metal can have sharp edges and corners. I mounted it by using a concrete nail as a punch and then putting exterior rated deck screws threw the metal. A little squirt of butyl caulk to seal up the holes and you are done.

Here is the final product.It isn't perfect but it was fairly inexpensive and I don't think the rabbits will mind. The rabbits are about old enough to start paying us back for all this effort.

More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank’s equity and threaten its survival.

I'm glad the pork pie wealth transfer bill is working so well and that the economy is improving. I'd hate to see what it would be like if it were going in the tank.

We aren't out of the woods, yet. Not by a long shot. Are your finances in order?

The article says 72 banks have failed this year, but that is out of date. Two more failed today. The total is now 74 bank failures this year.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Massachusetts health authorities took the unprecedented step yesterday of deputizing dentists, paramedics, and pharmacists to help administer vaccines against both the seasonal flu and the novel swine strain expected to make a return visit in the fall.

I've thought this market increase was a sucker's rally. I just don't see how anyone would have the confidence to invest with this President and this congress and all of their plans for "hope and change". When congress is off the leash you never know what they will do. This government has shown that it doesn't care about contracts. It will void contracts to help out one of it's constituent groups. That doesn't give me confidence enough to invest. What if I make great choices and the government decides that my gain means a loss for some union and changes the playing field in the middle of the game?

Here is a prediction of gloom and doom from the chief credit strategist for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

I'm no market expert and I don't know if this guy knows what he's talking about but that is an interesting read.

From the article:

"A move to new lows is highly likely," he said.

Mr Janjuah, RBS's chief credit strategist, has a loyal following in the City. He was one of the very few analysts to speak out early about the dangerous excesses of the credit bubble. He then made waves in the summer of 2008 by issuing a global crash alert, giving warning that a "very nasty period is soon to be upon us" as – indeed it was. Lehman Brothers and AIG imploded weeks later.

This time he expects the S&P 500 index of US equities to reach the "mid 500s", almost halving from current levels near 1000.

I plan on keeping a close eye on the market. I just don't see how it can keep going up.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I used to think that people were crazy when they talked about being forced to have the number of the beast on our foreheads or wrists. Now I'm not so sure. With this technology you don't need to have the number on you - because you are the number.

This is from a couple of weeks ago. I guess I'm a little slow.

From the article:

At a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, lawmakers from both parties expressed broad support Tuesday for strengthening the E-Verify online employment eligibility verification program with biometrics.

Now the government wants to use stopping illegals as a reason to gather a biometric database on everyone in the nation. That is especially funny considering that the government has absolutely no intention of doing anything about illegal immigration. Who are they kidding? Would they actually do something like round up illegals and send them home? LOL.

More nonsense:

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, (D-Ill.), urged Congress to ignore "naysayers" opposed to biometric authentication. With adequate security, privacy protections and care, a biometric-based employment verification system is the "only hope" for dealing with illegal employment, he said.

Ha ha. The government doesn't use the tools we have now to enforce the law. Why should we think that would change? For that matter there won't be any illegals if this President has his way.

A bigger question is this: Where in the Constitution is the government authorized to do this?

Oh, I forgot. The Constitution is just an old piece of paper that should be ignored.

Mark Lloyd has recently been appointed “Chief Diversity Officer” at the Federal Communications Commission. Conservative groups believe his installation is merely another way to impose the dangerous principles contained in the Fairness Doctrine.

Seems to me if he wants to increase "diversity" in media he should force the Commie News Network and abc, cbs, and nbc, to diversify their staffs with reasonable people to balance out the loonies that dominate those outlets.

Here is some more nonsense:

Lloyd is a longtime Democrat activist who has strategized about ways to censor conservative media under the guise of “local accountability.” In 2007, he co-wrote a report that called for, among other things, the restoration of local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations and fines for commercial radio station owners if their stations didn’t air enough “progressive” content. Those fines would go directly into the pockets of liberal competitors with fewer listeners.

After reading that I think I need to go heave my breakfast onto the tv monitor in the cafeteria that is always set to cnn.

Now let me make throw up again:

“Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system, particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimina¬tion of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules,” he wrote.

My conclusion is the gap between conservative and socialist talk radio is the result of nobody wanting to hear socialists spew their garbage. If there was a market for marxist radio then there would be marxist talk radio programs on the air. I can just imagine the format:

This is marxist radio and I'm your host Karl Hussein. Now, let me tell the next caller what to think.

Another cause for the gap is left-wing overload. If you listen to any news on the radio or tv it is dominated by left-wing extremists claiming to be in the middle. People want a choice and that choice is talk radio.

Now that I've made you sick I'll try to make you mad as well:

In addition to having this new CDO title, Lloyd will also assume the title of Associate General Counsel, giving him what seems to be a substantial amount of authority to pursue these objectives.

So he's not just going to be some wanna-be elite twirp making silly statements. His statements will actually bother you in the real world.

This just goes on and on:

In a blog post, LCCR praised the selection of Lloyd by saying that he will “help the FCC to develop communications policy that will increase media diversity and address the needs of low-income people, women, minorities, people with disabilities.”

"Address the needs of low-income people, women, minorities, people with disabilities." What does that have to do with anything? A communications policy that will increase media diversity? I already covered that. They need to add conservative reporters and editors to all the major networks and newpapers. A communications policy that will address the needs of low income people? Are they going to take more of our money and buy radios for poor people? Most poor people have louder stereos than anyone else in my experience. What exactly are the communications needs of women and minorities? Do they not know how to tune a radio or tv to a program they like? Do they not know how to work the OFF button? What are the communications needs of people with disabilities?

None of that sounds like any business of the federal government. I seem to remember a thing called The First Amendment to the Constitution of The United States that covers the communications needs of all Americans.

We don't need a "Chief Diversity Officer". We need more barf bags after reading about nonsense like this.

I guess it really follows the left's philosophy that if you can't get people to buy what you're selling by convincing them it is the best then use the force of government to make them buy what you are selling.

There is a supposedly educated, hard left loony at the office. He thinks we need to double the spending on every government giveaway program to make sure the economy picks up.

WHAT!?

This guy really believes that a recession is caused by taxes being too low and the government not wasting enough money. Of course he is in his 60s and doesn't have any children so he doesn't really care about the future beyond getting freebies between now and when he dies.

As an overweight smoker I think he might want to reconsider his position on socialized medicine.

Well, they may defy the stuff that the White House puts out as a forecast, but reality insists.

From the article:

Stagnant unemployment, shrinking tax revenue and a struggling economy threaten to quadruple the size of last year's federal budget deficit, raising more questions about the timing of costly proposals to overhaul health care.

When a left wing rag like usatoday says something like that then you can bet things are looking bad.

Another jewel:

Lawmakers are struggling to pay for a plan with a mix of tax increases on upper-income people and Medicare spending reductions aimed at doctors, hospitals, drugmakers and insurers.

That is in a secret code. It means "Lets try to finish off the economy and bankrupt all doctors and hospitals so we can have a real 'crisis' that the government can 'solve'."

More:

The economy is set to shrink by 2.6% this year, more than twice what the White House predicted in February and May.

The way this article reads we've already been wiped out by right-wing militias.

I didn't watch the video they refer to in the article, which was supposedly from something called "The Ohio Militia". I did get a chuckle from this:

The man is holding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, and he encourages viewers to buy one.

Guess what. I encourage everyone to buy one if they can afford it. I encourage everyone to buy two if they can afford it. I must be a right-wing extremist.

Here is a good one:

Last year, officials warned about an increase in activity from militias in a five-year threat projection by the Homeland Security Department.

"White supremacists and militias are more violent and thus more likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks on the scale of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing," the threat projection said.

"White supremacists and militias are more violent and thus more likely to conduct mass-casualty attacks . . . " I'd like to see the evidence of that. It probably came from the drug induced nightmares of Rahm "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste" Emanuel.

These DHS types are hoping (and praying if they believe in God) for another OKC bombing. This administration is dreaming of how they can increase the power of the federal government if something like that happened again. They can almost taste it.

I read about more murders committed by illegal aliens every week than by right-wing extremists. The big difference between the two is that some day the people that are now illegals will be voting for democrats.

I seem to recall a lot of nonsense about this during the clinton adminstration. There was a lot of talk about black churches being burned and stuff like that. About 30 miles from where I live a church with a mostly black congregation burned and there were all kinds of protests against "white supremacists" and "militias" and all the usual suspects that the LWM like to bring up.

The headlines read "Oh no, the KKK is coming to town to counter protest" and a lot of other BS. They showed up all right. All 7 of them. Big deal, but it made huge local headlines.

Upon further investigation it turned out the a black member of the church set the church on fire. That didn't make any headlines that I found. You had to dig into the back of the paper between the obits and the society listings to find that story.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

My grandpa on my dad's side was an interesting character. He was a full time farmer and a full time school teacher at the same time and a part time welder on the side among other things. He had a farm hand named Sprewell (I don't know about the spelling but that's what it sounded like) that lived in an old house on his farm.

One time my grandpa needed to move some hay and he wanted to get it moved soon so he needed another hand to help. He packed up Sprewell and my dad in the old farm truck and headed over to where the local day laborers hung out to wait for a job for the day. My dad said he was about 7 or 8 so that would have put this some time during World War II. At any rate Grandpa ended up hiring a black man to help load this hay on the truck and then unload it at their destination.

Being the boss my grandpa brought water can. At the first break my grandpa took out the only cup and filled it with water and offered it to the black guy first. After he had his drink my grandpa offered it to Sprewell.

Sprewell said "I'm not drinking after that n*****" and refused to take a drink.

My Grandpa said "That's fine with me" and he drank then gave the cup to my dad. My dad said he thought "If my dad is going to drink after him then it must be ok" so he drank.

This happened during the summer and it was hot loading that hay. The second break was a repeat of the first break and Sprewell still didn't get a drink.

I don't know what goes through the mind of someone like that. Even if he drank first on this break and the black man had to drink second then on the next break he'd still be drinking after the black man.

At any rate Sprewell finally got thirsty enough to drink after the black man. Sprewell was probably surprised that it didn't kill him.

Apparently my grandpa was satisfied with the work the new guy did because he hired the same man to help move some more hay the next day.

Sprewell brought his own water can and cup so he didn't have to drink after anyone.

Actions speak louder than words and my grandpa put his ideas into action that day. My dad said he always paid a fair wage for a fair days work regardless of who it was working. My dad told me that story many years ago and it has always stuck with me for some reason.

Remember the story in Logan's Run? Anyone over 21 or 30 (depending on whether you are reading the book or watching the movie) has to submit to being killed to preserve resources for younger people. There is a type of special agent called a "Sandman" whose job is to hunt down and kill anyone that doesn't want to submit.

My question is: Who is going to be the Sandman?

Maybe the government could use the Bloods and the Crips. They wouldn't be called "Sandmen". Instead they could be known as "Euthanasia Coordinators" to convince old people to kill themselves so the rest of us wouldn't have to waste precious resources on them.

I can see the LWM headlines now: "100,000 more old people decided to take their own lives last month to save their children from higher taxes for healthcare after speaking with "Euthanasia Coordinators. Interestingly, all of them shot themselves in the back of the head with handguns. In some cases they shot themselves several times."

Maybe instead of the Bloods and Crips the government could hire MS13 to take care of things. In that case instead of old people shooting themselves in the back of the head they could chop themselves up with machetes.

After that, to save costs 9-1-1 could start asking about victims ages before deciding the priority of sending the police, fire department, or EMS.

The conversations could go something like this:Operator: 9-1-1 EmergencyCaller: A man has fallen down. His face is white and he's holding his chest.Operator: How old is he?Caller: What!!? He needs an ambulance!! I think he's having a heart attack.Operator: I need his approximate age.Caller: Maybe 65.Operator: Ok. We'll have someone there within the next 4 hours. Try to keep him calm.

Maybe we could all have RFID tags implanted in our bodies so that EMTs could scan everyone at the scene of an accident or disaster and put anyone past a certain age at the back of the triage line. For that matter every newborn could be implanted with a chip that would record the cost of every medical service that person used during their life. Healthcare providers would read that data before providing any service. When you reach some limit service providers would no longer provide treatment.

This could work out great. Preferred groups like ACORN and union members would have higher limits than normal peons. Of course government officials and their families would not have a limit.

Going back to the beginning of the Bush presidency, Rubenstein says that "for every 100 Hispanics employed in January 2001, there are now 122.5. ... (But) for every 100 non-Hispanics employed in January 2001, there are now 98.9."

Since 2001, Hispanic employment has increased by 3,627,000 positions, while non-Hispanic positions have fallen by 1,362,000. For black and white America, the Bush decade did not begin well or end well, and it has gotten worse under Obama.

And:

Fox News' Dick Morris:

"The principal impact of the Obama health-care program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use. No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered."

Under Obamacare, adds Morris, "the elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access."

For defensive use a shotgun is a short ranged heavy recoiling rifle with a small magazine capacity and bulky, heavy ammunition.

There. Now for a few details.

If you are going to use a buckshot loaded shotgun for defense you need to take that thing out and pattern it WITH THE LOAD YOU WILL ACTUALLY BE USING from contact distance out until the pattern spreads so wide that you aren't getting enough pellets into the target to be effective. Various loads pattern differently in different shotguns and the some spread faster than others. Just because your shotgun will keep all the pellets from a Winchester 2 3/4 inch 00 load in a 10" circle at 10 yards doesn't mean that it will keep all the pellets from a Federal 2 3/4 inch 00 load in a 15" circle at the same distance.

You need to know what your shotgun will do with your load at every possible distance. The cheaper loads you usually find at Walmart often have the most rapid spread. I tried some of those bottom end Winchester and Federal 00, #1, and #4 loads from Walmart in four different high quality cylinder bore shotguns. Almost all of the loads kept all the pellets on an 8.5" x11" paper at 10 yards. By 12 yards all were missing that paper with some pellets. By 15 yards the patterns overall were about 50%. That means the 00 buckshot you usually find at Walmart would keep 4 or 5 pellets on an 8.5" x 11" paper at 15 long paces. Many people have shots longer than that inside their house. The higher dollar loads will usually pattern better and an improved cylinder or even modified choke tube could help, but there is no guarantee. If you are going to use a shotgun then pattern your gun with your load. I also tried those four shotguns with cheapo Foster slug loads. The three with ghost ring sights would keep all their slugs on an 8.5" x 11" paper out to 100 yards. At 25 yards all would easily keep all their slugs in a group you could cover with the palm of your hand. I didn't bother trying any of them with cheap buckshot loads at 25 yards. Why do I keep bringing up cheap loads from Walmart? Because if you ever run short in an emergency situation you probably won't have time to order that special load from somewhere online and you'll just run down to the nearest Walmart or Academy and buy whatever they have on the shelf. I have seen some shotguns with high dollar loads that would keep all the pellets of that particular load in a 10" circle out to 25 yards and one that would keep all the pellets in a 10" circle at 35 yards so it can be done but it may take trying a number of different loads and choke tubes to find one that works that well.

My advice is to take a defensive shotgun course from a good school. Then take a defensive rifle course from a good school. More than one of each if you can afford it. My experience is that the exercises you do in the shotgun course would be easy with a rifle in 5.56x45mm or 7.62x39mm and no more difficult with a .30-30 levergun or a 7.62x51mm semiauto than they are with a shotgun. The exercises in the rifle course will often be very difficult with a shotgun even if you exclude anything outside of 50 yards.

One of the things you will probably be exposed to in a defensive shotgun course is a "select slug" drill. The idea is that during a fight with people shooting at you, if you suddenly see a target 20+ yards away (outside buckshot range) you should take the buckshot round out of the chamber and substitute a slug which you then use against the distant target. Does that sound like a prudent thing to do? It doesn't to me. I took a defensive shotgun course with Louis Awerbuck and we did some of these. There are a variety of methods to use depending on the type of action your shotgun has and how lucky you are feeling that day. One thing they all had in common was that they all sucked. All were at best tedious, complicated, time consuming, and tended to get your attention focused between your hands when it should be out there where the threat is. At worst they were suicidal. Long before that class I thought the right thing to do with a defensive shotgun was to load it with slugs and I came out of the class more convinced of that than ever.

If you are going to load your shotgun with slugs then why not just use a rifle instead?

BTW during the class someone asked Mr. Awerbuck what he used for home defense. His answer was that he kept 3 or 4 shotguns scattered around his house. They were all identical pump shotguns with rifle sights and all were loaded exclusively with slugs. Why loaded with slugs? Because he didn't want to have to worry about which gun he picked up and how it patterned at each range. With all of them loaded with slugs and all zeroed the same they will all hit the same inside of 25 yards. They will probably all hit pretty much the same out to 100 yards.

I wouldn't advice trying to shuffle the round in the chamber in the middle of a fight. The best method for me was to shove a slug into the magazine then run the action and lose the round that was in the chamber. That wastes ammo and of course won't work if the magazine is full. Some semiauto shotguns may give you trouble with that method as well.

The biggest problem with the defensive use of shotguns other than the short effective range is that many people think they are an ultimate weapon that requires no knowledge or skill to be effective. "I'll scare them off with the sound of it being racked . . ", "I don't even have to aim . . . ", "I'll only need one shot . . . ", and all that kind of nonsense.

Me? I'm not that worried about the creeps that can be scared off with a sound - I'm worried about the ones that can't be scared off at all. I'd rather have two 20 or 30 round mags than to have a 5 round mag and 5 or 10 more rounds strapped to the gun. I don't plan on missing but I also don't plan on shooting as well under real stress as I do in practice and while I don't expect to face a zombie horde I don't have the power to see into the future so I really don't know what I'll face. I also don't count on one round ever being enough.

Use a shotgun if you want but make sure you understand the limitations.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

We keep our chickens in big cages to keep them safe from predators and so we have an easy time finding the eggs. One of the biggest hassles of this is filling the waterers inside the cages, especially after it rains. I decided there had to be a better way. Here it is and it doesn't cost a lot.

I started by using a hole saw to cut a hole in the top of the bucket for the pipe to fit through.You can see that the hole ended up a little bigger than the pipe but I'll take care of that.Here is the label from the gasket material I used. It comes in sheets. This kind came from Lowe's but I'm sure you can get some at any hardware store.I used some snips to cut the gasket into squares and to cut holes into the squares. These were my first cuts, so to speak. I had to enlarge them a little to fit around the pipe perfectly.Here are the fittings I used. Put a gasket over the long threaded piece on the left, then put it through the hole. Put the other gasket over the fitting on the inside of the lid, then install the nut on the inside and tighten it up.Here it is with the gasket on the upper fitting. It looks a little sloppy but I don't think the chickens will care.After you tighten up these fittings you need to make sure that the pipes and fittings fit together. Here is what it looks like.Then I used the PVC primer and cement to make the connections permanent. You probably don't want to cement the valve on at this point because you will want to put the pipe through the side of your cage. If you have the valve cemented on you will have to cut a big hole in the side of your cage and then repair it. You might want to assemble this in your chicken cage to make sure you have the height and angle of the fittings correct before you use the cement. Here is the primer and cement I used.Next, I used a drill with a 3/16" bit to drill four holes in the bucket about a 1/2" above the bottom.Here is the assembly placed into the oil pan.Here is the assembly in the corner of the cage.Here is the valve I used. It will keep bugs and vermin out of the water tank and it creates a vacuum that keeps all the water from pouring out.I used a tie wrap to hold the pipe to the side of the cage and used wire to hold the bucket steady.To fill it just turn on the garden hose, open the valve and pour water in. The pipe is big enough to let the air out while you are filling it. When you get it full just close the valve and you are done.

The total cost was about $15 and now I don't have to get my feet muddy when it rains.

Our new reds have been laying some more tiny eggs. We had some bagels so I thought I'd have a fried egg and cheese bagel.

Here are the little eggs next to some normal sized eggs.Here's one in the pan.Here goes another.Here are three together.Looking good.With the top on.It was delicious. Soon they'll be laying full sized eggs.

Some might argue that if you're not wearing a seatbelt and wind up a vegetable, society has to take care of you; therefore, the fascist threat "click it or ticket." Becoming a burden on society is not a problem of liberty and private property. It's a problem of socialism where one person is forced to take care of someone else.

Seems to me that if the would-be justice's ideology would lead them to interpret the Constitution such that the federal government can grow without limit then that candidate is not qualified to be on the Supreme Court.

The ideology of the nominee should be under consideration here, not the ideology of our representatives.

This is the kind of decision that will impact the rest of our lives. We better get it right.

I got the little tiller out today to start preparing for a fall garden. About half way through it started running weaker and weaker. I shut it down to let it cool off. When I started it up again it would idle fine but had no power.

I also noticed that the primer bulb wasn't working correctly. It would pump fuel but wouldn't reinflate. I made sure the fuel filter wasn't clogged and I took the top end of the carb assembly (the part with the primer) off, thinking that if the primer wasn't working right that the problem was probably in that area. I cleaned it out and reassembled but no luck.

After spending a couple of hours running the tiller in the heat and a couple more hours messing around with the tiller I decided that I'd had enough.

My next try will be to put some fuel system cleaner in the tank and let it idle for a while. May be a waste of time but I might get lucky. If that doesn't do it then I'll pull the whole carburetor off and see what I can find there.

While all that was going on my wife and my oldest son were taking turns on the riding mower. I noticed when the young man was bringing the mower back in that it was missing and idling very rough. Wonderful. All I need is another old small gasoline engine to work on while chores need to be done.

I can't complain about the riding mower. It was a present from my parents the summer after we bought our first house. This is the 12th summer we've used it. In addition to changing the oil and cleaning the air cleaner, I've sharpened and replaced the blades replaced the belts, replaced the battery twice, replaced a starter solenoid and a throttle cable, plugged a couple of flat tires, and replaced two of the three mandrels on the mower deck. That's it. Not much maintenance for a mower that has averaged at least 4 hours of hard use per week through 12 summers. I've never replaced the spark plugs so that is probably a good place to start on a tuneup. If you are interested it is a Sears Craftsman with a 2 cylinder B&S engine.

I really don't want to spend the money on another mower or another tiller so I hope I can fix both.

To get the economy back on track, will President Barack Obama have to break his pledge not to raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans? In a “This Week” exclusive, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me, "We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”

"We're going to have to do what's necessary" is a scary thing we've heard before in foreign countries, usually right before serious pain begins.

Here is a good one:

Geithner was clear that he believes a key component of economic recovery is deficit reduction.

That's a laugh. Or maybe this administration doesn't want an economic recovery. They seem to be doing everything they can to prevent it so I have to wonder.

“We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically,” Geithner told me. “And that’s going to require some very hard choices.”

Just about everyone in this nation right now is making hard choices that generally consist of cutting spending. Only in the White House and the democrat leadership in congress does the hard choice entail spending more.

I truly felt hope when I saw this:

But, he underlined that the administration is “going to do what is necessary to bring growth back on track.”

You mean the President is going to resign? That is fantastic!!

Here is more proof that these clowns have a very limited relation with reality:

"Everybody understands that we cannot have our financial system go back to the practices that brought this economy to the brink of collapse," he told me. "It is going to take fundamental reform."

Since the federal government CAUSED the current crisis I guess the logical thing to do would be to get the federal government out of the economy. That would be a fundamental reform. Somehow, though, I think the reforms he wants are the kind that involve more government interference which leads to more crisis, which leads to even more government interference.